CONNECTED DEVICE SYSTEM WITH STREAMING CONTROL MODE

• US 20200137848A1
• Filed: 04/11/2018
• Published: 04/30/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 04/25/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Signify Holding B.V. (Signify N.V.)
• Original Assignee: Signify Holding B.V. (Signify N.V.)
• Inventors: KAMP, Antonie Leonardus Johannes, HUBBERS, Aloys
• Granted Patent: US 10,980,089 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2807 Exchanging configuration information on appliance services in a home automation network arrangements for maintenance or administration involving network analysis for automatically determining the actual topology of a network H04L41/12; hardware or software tools for network management using graphical user interfaces H04L41/22; address allocation H04L61/50
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/282 based on user interaction within the home receiver circuitry for displaying additional information being controlled by a remote control apparatus H04N21/42204
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/285 Generic home appliances, e.g. refrigerators
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 39/04 Controlling
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 45/10 Controlling the intensity of the light
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 47/105 in response to determined parameters
• CPC Class Codes: Y02B 20/40 Control techniques providing energy savings, e.g. smart controller or presence detection

Abstract

The invention relates to a connected device system that is adapted to form a low-bandwidth wireless mesh network (2) between a plurality of devices (3, 4, 5, 6). The connected device system (1) comprises multiple output devices (3, 4, 5) for outputting human-perceptible stimuli and a controller device (6) for controlling the stimulus outputs of the multiple output devices via the wireless mesh network. The controller device is adapted to switch a group of the multiple output devices from a first control mode, in the stimulus outputs are controlled by control messages of a first type, to a second control mode, in which the stimulus outputs are controlled by control messages of a second type. The control messages of the second type are transmitted to the output devices of the group at a higher rate than the control messages of the first type.

Claims

1. A connected lighting system that is adapted to form a Zigbee network between a plurality of devices, wherein the connected lighting system comprises:

multiple lighting devices for outputting human-perceptible stimuli,

a controller device, for controlling the stimulus outputs of the multiple lighting devices via the Zigbee network,

adapted to switch a group of the multiple lighting devices from a first control mode, in which the multiple lighting devices are adapted to have their stimulus outputs controlled by control messages of a first type, to a second control mode, in which the lighting devices of the group are adapted to only have their stimulus outputs controlled by control messages of a second type, and

a proxy device that is adapted to transmit the control messages of the second type to the lighting devices of the group as single-hop broadcast messages;

wherein the connected lighting system is adapted such that the control messages of the second type can be transmitted to the lighting devices of the group via the Zigbee network at a higher rate than the control messages of the first type as the control messages of the second type are not rebroadcasted to reach other lighting devices in the Zigbee network.

2. The connected lighting system as defined in claim 1, wherein the control messages of the first type are conventional Zigbee multicast and/or broadcast messages.

3. The connected lighting system as defined in claim 1, wherein the single-hop broadcast messages are InterPAN messages.

4. The connected lighting system as defined in claim 1, wherein the proxy device is positioned with respect to the lighting devices of the group such that it can reach them with the single-hop broadcast messages.

5. The connected lighting system as defined in claim 4, wherein the proxy device is a lighting device of the group.

6. The connected lighting system as defined in claim 5, wherein the connected lighting system is adapted to select the proxy device based on at least one of:

a measurement of a signal characteristic between the lighting devices of the group;

stored information about the locations of the lighting devices of the group; and

a manual selection by a user.

7. The connected lighting system as defined in claim 1, comprising a proxy device, wherein the controller device is adapted to transmit the control messages of the second type to the proxy device as unicast messages.

8. The connected lighting system as defined in claim 1, wherein the control messages of the second type each comprise stimulus output control information for individually controlling the stimulus output of each lighting device of the group.

9. The connected lighting system as defined in claim 1, wherein the control messages of the second type comprise a transition time information for smoothing transitions of the stimulus outputs.

10. The connected lighting system as defined in claim 1, wherein a lighting device of the group includes a variable for storing a state of its stimulus output and is adapted, in the second control mode, to:

not update the variable based on the control messages of the second type and,

when being switched back to the first control mode by the controller device, to adjust its stimulus output to the state stored in the variable, or

receive control messages of the first type and to update the variable according to the control messages of the first type without correspondingly adjusting its stimulus output and,

when being switched back to the first control mode by the controller device, to adjust its stimulus output to the state stored in the variable, or

wherein the lighting device is adapted to;

when being switched back to the first control mode by the controller device, store the state of its current stimulus output in the variable.

11. An output device for use in a connected lighting system as defined in claim 1, wherein the lighting device is adapted to be switched from the first control mode, in which the lighting device is adapted to have its stimulus output controlled by control messages of the first type, to the second control mode, in which the lighting device is adapted to only have is stimulus output controlled by control messages of the second type.

12. A controller device for use in a connected lighting system as defined in claim 1, wherein the controller device is adapted to switch the group of the multiple lighting devices from the first control mode, in which the multiple lighting devices are adapted to have their stimulus outputs controlled by control messages of the first type, to the second control mode, in which the lighting devices of the group are adapted to only have their stimulus outputs controlled by control messages of the second type.

13. A proxy device for use in a connected lighting system as defined in claim 1, wherein the proxy device is adapted to transmit control messages of the second type to the lighting devices of the group as single-hop broadcast messages.

14. A method for controlling a connected lighting system that is adapted to form a Zigbee network between a plurality of devices, the connected lighting system comprising multiple lighting devices for outputting human-perceptible stimuli, a controller device for controlling the stimulus outputs of the multiple lighting devices via the Zigbee network and a proxy device, wherein the method comprises:

switching, by the controller device, a group of the multiple lighting devices from a first control mode, in which the multiple lighting devices are adapted to have their stimulus outputs controlled by control messages of a first type, to a second control mode, in which the output devices of the group are adapted to only have their stimulus outputs controlled by control messages of a second type, and

transmitting, by the connected device system, the control messages of the second type to the lighting devices of the group via the Zigbee network, wherein the proxy device transmits the control messages of the second type to the lighting devices of the group as single-hop broadcast messages; and

wherein the control messages of the second type are transmitted at a higher rate than the control messages of the first type as the control messages of the second type are not rebroadcasted to reach other lighting devices in the Zigbee network.